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How to live on $432 a month in America

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Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#671

Post by antisthenes »

s09dfhks wrote: post #307
TrackerFF wrote: post #134

I looked through those numbers, and immediately thought to myself - hope you don't need to see a doctor for anything serious, or go to a dentist for that mater. FWIW, I grew up in rural nowhere (population 150, nearest town 45 miles away) - and I honestly don't know how anyone can live out in the boonies without a car. Taking the bus that goes 3 times a day is one thing, needing to move stuff is another thing. I mean…

In the comments on the article, the author says “we treat what we can at home, otherwise we go to Mexico and pay cash” Oy vey

That says a lot more about the dysfunctional US healthcare system than it does about the author.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#672

Post by rwyinuse »

brokegrammer wrote: post #510

I think living in rural areas sucks because you'll end up feeling very lonely. And I'm speaking as a hardcore introvert who didn't feel lonely at all during the lock-down. But after extended periods of isolation, human connection becomes important, especially if you're young. I'm currently living below my means in a small village in Mauritius, but I'm planning on moving to a big city in a big country ASAP because whi…

Yeah, it really depends on your life situation. When I was reaching 20's I felt like you, and moving to city was great for my mental health. Now I'm in my 30's, my parents and my spouses parents live in rural area. We have small kids, and due to that we have barely any time to socialize. At this life stage, cheaper housing, quiet and proximity to our family in the countryside is really becoming attractive. City life with kids sucks when there's no family nearby, and you can't afford a big enough apartment.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#673

Post by hajile »

MarceColl wrote: post #586
stickfigure wrote: post #580

On one hand I agree with the general premise of the article, which is that you can live a lot cheaper than you choose to. Homes in the passably-cute downtown of Massena are under $100k; you could live on $40k/yr comfortably and if you're here on HN you can probably earn at least than that with a remote job. Cutting it to $5k/yr is just trying to prove something. The missing thing is health care. If you're young and i…

That's insane, my dad had cancer 3 years ago, and here in Spain we didn't even think about it (beyond of course the terrible situation). If you also want private insurance it will cost a youngish small family (like mine) 150EUR/month.

The problem with US healthcare is bloat.

According to Google, person in Spain spends on average $4,432 per person per year with some $3,113 of that being paid by the government.

The US government pays out $6,000 per person per year or nearly TWICE as much.

The problem is that $6000 is still less than half of the $14,570 per person per year (2023) healthcare costs in the US.

And of course, the US government payments don't cover everyone equally. They only cover the elderly and some subset of the very poor (mostly kids).

The only fix is reducing US healthcare costs to something more like the rest of the world, but that requires sharing drug R&D costs evenly with other countries (raising your costs), reigning in insurance companies, eliminating over-credentializing of doctors and other medical professionals, fixing school cost/debt, and reducing/eliminating the massive amounts of unnecessary bureaucracy/paperwork (allowing doctors to reduce staff and see more patients per day which reduces overall medical costs).

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#674

Post by antisthenes »

dangus wrote: post #190
TrackerFF wrote: post #134

I looked through those numbers, and immediately thought to myself - hope you don't need to see a doctor for anything serious, or go to a dentist for that mater. FWIW, I grew up in rural nowhere (population 150, nearest town 45 miles away) - and I honestly don't know how anyone can live out in the boonies without a car. Taking the bus that goes 3 times a day is one thing, needing to move stuff is another thing. I mean…

I will say, at this income level you're on Medicaid. It would be more than nothing but very basic, and if you're using government assistance than you aren't really "escaping" modernity, you're actually living off of the economic surplus of all the people working hard in the rat race. (Don't misinterpret me as saying that social safety nets are bad, I am all for them, but I'm just saying - if the author of this articl…

> you're actually living off of the economic surplus of all the people working hard in the rat race.

That's one way to look at it.

Another way is that you're living off of the economic surplus you were producing while working a highly paid 9-5 job that paid a shitload of taxes. Now it's your time to live off the surplus you produced and take it easier.

> I am sure it works on some level but it doesn’t seem to me to be a very positive alternative to a lot of other lifestyles.

It's not a very positive lifestyle from the standpoint of increasing the GDP to some maximum amount, yeah.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#675

Post by cozzyd »

oblio wrote: post #511
johnisgood wrote: post #484

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you described is what my parents have done with me. They took me to the kindergarden, on foot. But then again, I live in Europe and it is dense enough here, the kindergarden was about 3-5 km away. You can definitely take the bus, which many people do around here.

The article is about the US and in most places they can't do that.

Especially not in a rural area. (We are raising our daughter without a car but we live in the downtown of a big city...)

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#676

Post by quesera »

labrador wrote: post #654
quesera wrote: post #645

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... that's not how Breaking Bad ended. :)

I assume that buying a machine gun to single handedly murder a biker gang is outside the scope of most of our experiences so not worth mentioning. The real end for me was him alone in a cabin with a barrel of cash. To me that was a more realistic ending. If anything, your correction proves my point. Most people don’t want living alone in a cabin as their ending.

Actually, I'd forgotten about the New Hampshire hideaway episode. The (actual) final episode was much more memorable.

And I'll agree that "living alone in a cabin" ... while you are the object of a nationwide manhunt ... is not how people want to live!

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#677

Post by cozzyd »

sumeno wrote: post #419
cozzyd wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? You can walk plenty in the cold with the right equipment. I walked 2+ km a day at the south pole ...

What are you buying this equipment with in this scenario?

Right, I mean obviously the scenario in the article is unrealistic budget wise (and good winter equipment is going to be at least several hundred dollars), but I'm pushing back against the idea you can't walk when it's cold ...

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#678

Post by insane_dreamer »

stickfigure wrote: post #580

On one hand I agree with the general premise of the article, which is that you can live a lot cheaper than you choose to. Homes in the passably-cute downtown of Massena are under $100k; you could live on $40k/yr comfortably and if you're here on HN you can probably earn at least than that with a remote job. Cutting it to $5k/yr is just trying to prove something. The missing thing is health care. If you're young and i…

This works if you’re young and healthy. Which is possible. I didn’t have health insurance for the first 45+ years of my life and saw a doctor maybe 4-5 times before my mid-50s. Must not have spent more than $5k total on medical in 30 years including dental. If you live a healthy lifestyle (much easier out there than in the city) and are relatively lucky genetically then lack of health insurance isn’t the bugaboo that most Americans seem to make it.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#679

Post by insane_dreamer »

Ok so the math is off by a factor of 2, but the basic premise still holds. Harder to do if you have school age kids though or are generally in poor health. But otherwise doable. Not for everyone, but for some it’s a much better life, qualitatively.

I wonder at what point we’ll see this become a trend as young-ish people realize that the trade off is worth it for them. Will we see a reverse migration from the cities at some point? We did some of that during Covid but I haven’t seen any numbers on much of it “stuck” post-COVID especially with RTO. Anyone seen any stats on this?

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#680

Post by lesuorac »

shlant wrote: post #547
lesuorac wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's mentioned as the article as free from using waste wood.

so people are just delivering free wood to anyone who chooses to move out to the boonies? Seems like a bad assumption to be making

well, specific people are delivering free _waste_ wood to people specifically near them.

Kinda like those people that got free _waste_ oil from restaurants to run their vans. It's not something you can replicate literally anywhere but it does exist. Industrial waste has to be disposed of somehow and often people are happy for you to accept it for free.

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